Gray v. Edmonds
| Decision Date | 22 November 1950 |
| Docket Number | No. 528,528 |
| Citation | 232 N.C. 681,62 S.E.2d 77 |
| Parties | GRAY et ux. v. EDMONDS et al. |
| Court | North Carolina Supreme Court |
J. Louis Carter and J. F. Flowers, Charlotte, for defendants-appellants.
B. F. Wellons and Brock Barkley, Charlotte, for plaintiffs-appellees.
The defendants' demurrer ore tenus to the complaint cannot be sustained. Sufficient facts are alleged to constitute a cause of action for relief on the ground of fraud.
The defendants' motion for judgment of nonsuit was properly denied. Considering the plaintiffs' evidence in the light most favorable for them, it is apparent that it was sufficient to carry the case to the jury on the issue of actionable fraud. Whitehurst v. Life Ins. Co., 149 N.C. 273, 62 S.E. 1067; Petty v. Pacific Mut. Ins. Co., 210 N.C. 500, 187 S.E. 816; Ward v. Heath, 222 N.C. 470, 24 S.E.2d 5; Atkinson v. Charlotte Puilders, 232 N.C. 67, 59 S.E.2d 1.
The defendants bottom their defense on the principle that the purchaser of property seeking redress on account of loss sustained by reliance upon a false representation of a material fact made by the seller may not be heard to complain if the parties were on equal terms and he had knowledge of the facts or means of information readily available and failed to make use of his knowledge or information, unless prevented by the seller. Harding v. Southern Loan & Ins. Co., 218 N.C. 129, 10 S.E.2d 599; Peyton v. Griffin, 195 N.C. 685, 143 S.E. 525. But the rule is also well established that one to whom a positive and definite representation has been made is entitled to rely on such representation if the representation is of a character to induce action by a person of ordinary prudence, and is reasonably relied upon. 23 A.J. 970; Restatement, Torts, secs. 537, 540. According to plaintiffs' evidence here the amount of rentals collectible was a material inducement to the purchase of an apartment house for investment, and the representations as to what had been collected over a period and as to the character and permanency of the tenants occupying it presented matters of fact within the personal knowledge of the defendants, and about which the plaintiffs had no means of accurate information, and upon which plaintiffs justifiably relied. Palomino Mills v. Davidson Mills Corp., 230 N.C. 286, 52 S.E.2d 915; Haywood v. Morton, 209 N.C. 235, 183 S.E. 280; Sanders v. Mayo, 186 N.C. 108, 118 S.E. 910; Currie v. Malloy, 185 N.C. 206, 116 S.E. 564; Stewart v. Salisbury...
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